Men of Sacrifice
by PDAceLover
Summary: Behind everything that defined them, they were no more than men of sacrifice.


**AN: Hello. This would be my second fiction and I do hope I can deliver this well. I've a feeling that most of the Uchiha members were all misunderstood in the manga as it was how their roles should be and so this is how I understood the fate of the brothers as a reader and in the point of view of Karin since I appreciate her character among all female Naruto characters.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

Their story was that of infinite love, overlapped by intense hate, tragedy, betrayal and most of all…sacrifice.

As she watched the stones in front of her with blurry eyes, she remembered what he told her.

How he lost his family in that bloody massacre and lost himself as well.

How he struggled to get stronger to avenge those he lost…

How he found his brother a few years after that massacre only to lose him and found him once more only to bury him.

And how the effect of that tragedy had totally changed him.

And so this is what he told her.

How hunting for the brother he killed, he found the brother he had loved and lost and how in his descent to darkness, he was continuously guided by the dead brother watching over the remaining one, he then journeyed back to what was his home…

And how finally, in the end, he was reunited to the one he lost.

And so this is what he told her.

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Strong wind whipped across windows as rain heavily poured down and it was like this that one man lay down on the blood-soaked ground. The stench of blood was too strong for everyone despite the heavy rain that seemed to wash it away.

Death stalks nearby allowing a few more minutes left for him to reflect.

His ears were deaf from the cries of those few who cared, his eyes already blinded by overused of his own power as well as tears that seemed to blind him more.

But who is he shedding his tears for?

For him?

For them?

Or for the one who went away?

As he stared at the blackness in front of him with warm hands holding his hands, soothing voices beckoning him to stay with them, a bitter smile curved his lips as he began to make light of everything.

Murderer.

Traitor.

Cold-blooded assassin.

Prodigy.

Those were the words that means Uchiha Itachi but behind those claims lies a painful truth – that he was no more than a man of sacrifice.

It was in the bloody hands of a fifteen-year old guy – who was not a boy yet barely a man – that the peace enjoyed by many was restored but it came with a sacrifice that he would have to make.

Family.

Honor.

Prestige.

Among all others, his little brother.

All of those were given up for the sake of the greater good and thus he was forced to make a choice and so a choice was made when one night, the entire Uchiha clan was massacred save for one.

All except one – one whom he can never and would never dare to kill, one who he saw his chance of salvation.

None other than the hardest one he was forced to give up – his little brother.

And for a man ready to give up everything, he faltered in front of that boy and was unable to kill him. What he did was yet another heart-wrenching sacrifice – instilling hate inside his brother's heart and issuing a challenge which the younger one took and carved inside him.

And thus his love for his younger brother was traded for hate and his honor for shame.

Yet he held on. He waited.

He waited while sacrificing the lives of many albeit reluctantly for the sake of his own ideals. An ideal borne from bloodshed – an ideal borne from a trauma –a trauma arising from the Shinobi war witnessed by the boy whose red eyes refused to relive such tragedy.

And thus the creation of Tsukiyomi – a technique less brutal yet just as painful when one was trapped in his illusionary world suffering from unimaginable torture for what seems like days in a matter of seconds.

A simple yet complicated man, his ways were that of a pacifist yet when pushed to the edge, another technique arises – it was a technique stronger than any fire jutsu hence Amaterasu – the inextinguishable fire from hell.

And when in a pinch, his final and ultimate technique would emerge in the form of Susanoo which made him almost invincible. Yet despite it all, despite his formidable prowess, it was never easy for a man who was given no other option then…it was never easy for him who tucked all his emotions and thoughts to the deepest corner of his hearts.

Owing it to his prodigious skills, he never had to go to any trouble engaging an enemy even that of Kakashi's caliber and it worked well for a man dying from an unknown disease, only extending his lifespan through medicine.

Always waiting for the time when his plan is set into motion.

Always watching from the distance and issuing warnings to those who dared hurt his brother.

And now as the dying man reflected on it, he now understood his brother's sacrifices even the techniques he left behind but by the time it dawned on him, it was too late to go back.

How painful it was to realize that Uchiha Sasuke understood his brother now when he was dying.

Sadly, the road he has taken was different from what Itachi had wished for him.

"Can you see him now?" Karin asked croakily as she held his hand tightly against hers.

His answer first was a crooked smile. "Odd. Now that I lost my sight, I could clearly see." He spoke in metaphor and everyone knew the underlying meaning behind it.

Karin did not speak as she felt the drops of rain on them, as she, along with the others, watched over him amidst the heavy storm.

Sakura bit her lip while she stood next to Naruto. In the end, she was never able to understand the workings of his mind and thus she had vowed to kill him with her own hands if only to save him from turning evil.

Yet as she watched helplessly while he started succumbing to the call of death, she could not accept that he'd die so easily after everything he had gone through.

"Karin?" he asked in whisper.

"Hm?"

She understood even without him telling her. It was a promise he made her have a little while ago before the rest arrived.

"Thank you," were his last words and he finally relented to the one which stalks nearby to the one watching and waiting. With her tattered clothes, Karin tore some of it as she wiped Sasuke's face with reverence while the rest watched painfully.

She looked up as one hand offered some help. She looked up to find him crying, his mask already ripped off, revealing his face behind it.

"We'll take him home."

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She fisted her hands as many shouted with glee as Team 7 arrived there, how most have tended to overlook the ceasing existence of one man. And so she allowed herself to remember the small talk.

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_His head rested on her lap as she stroked his hair tenderly while the downpour of the rain remained unnoticed by both of them. _

"_Why won't you bite my hand?" she whispered and the young man shook his head._

"_He was a man of sacrifice," he suddenly blurted out and everyone who knew him knew he was referring to his brother._

"_He was," she agreed. Like so many others, Uchiha Itachi was a pawn meant to be sacrificed but unlike other ninjas, his sacrifices were tremendous. _

"_Only in his death did I find the one I lost. Did you know how it started for me?" he asked regretfully with his eyes closed but Karin could still feel the pain in his voice and it tore her heart. "It started on that night when he was forced to make a choice. Everything I believed in had totally crumbled leaving me confused and angry," he continued, not giving her the chance to speak._

_All she could do is lend her ears as he opened his heart once more, allowing himself to feel the comfort of a comrade. _

"_I never wondered why he left me alive instead of killing me. I never asked myself that because I allowed hate and rage to rule me," his voice was starting to get raspy and she knew he is only struggling a little to live, perhaps only to tell her things he never told anyone._

"_And so when I found him and we fought, I'm only consumed with rage, blinded by hatred he forced me to harbor for him."_

_She bent her head and brushed a few strands of his hair. From a distance, they looked like two lovers enjoying their last moment together._

_He chuckled a little, making him cough an amount of blood but his body felt numb from physical pain. _

"_It's odd you know. I grew up practically alone after that massacre and was used to it – yet it is only now that I'll tell anyone about it. It's been years," he took a deep breath and coughed blood once more, "…so many years after that massacre…and it's been a while since his death…been a while since he's on the sod yet I miss him still."_

_The tremor in his voice is so strong for anyone to ignore f they're listening to a confession from the lone man. _

"_It's been years since I fought him and buried him yet I could still feel his lingering presence as he continuously watched over me even from the after life."_

_This time, his eyes opened and stared blankly as he wanted to see how she would react to everything he confessed but blackness greeted him and he knew he lost his sight. However, her warm hands amidst the cold rain assured him that she understood. _

"_It's probably," he took another intake of breath, "…the first time I talk about this."_

"_I may not know the entirety of what happened then but I'm pretty sure that I'm with you till the end," she finally found her voice. This time, she looked far ahead, her vision remained blurry with continuous tear. She wondered if they will ever arrive in time to talk to him._

"_Karin?"_

"_Hmm?"_

_It surprised her that his voice was that of a child, an abandoned child and her heart cried for him. She understood what he wants to say._

"_I won't," she said firmly and he believed her. "I won't ever leave you."_

_His hand tried to reach for her and Karin held it firmly. "What did you regret the most?" she asked although she knew the question would elicit more painful memories. _

_Pain crossed his face as a butter smile curved his lips. "A lot…"_

"_Let it go Sasuke…" she whispered close to him. "Allow one to partake of your pain."_

_His breathing was starting to get ragged. "I regret leaving Konoha…I regret giving my friends up…" this time his voice croaked. "But most of all…I rue the day I fought him."_

_It was enough for her to understand a little of it. She continued crying while feeling the others finally arrive. What she would give to see him go peacefully without pain…_

"_Have you…" she stopped to wipe her teras. "have you ever thought for once…that you're just like him?"_

_He did not answer when other voices broke in. _

"_Sasuke!!"_

_They gathered around the two but Sasuke and Karin were oblivious of them as they tried to understand each other in mutual silence. _

"_Teme!"_

_Sasuke remained silent as he unclasped his hand from Karin's and tried to reach for someone only he could probably see yet they all could feel a very powerful presence around them – the presence of someone who had already departed from this world. _

_And that was when Karin asked. "Can you see him now?"_

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Karin blinked. It had been two years and she always visits the place where his soul was laid to rest alongside his brother. She spun as she felt the presence of his former team, the pink-haired holding a single flower for him.

She stood her ground, her senses feeling Suigetsu and Juugo just nearby for they went and gathered flowers for him as well.

This would be the first time in two years that they crossed paths and she wondered what would happen.

"Karin, is it?" Kakashi asked kindly as she stood with caution. No matter what, they are still criminals only spared by Konoha for their association with Sasuke who, in his last minute, died for Naruto. She did not answer and merely stared at them until Sakura spoke.

"Were you…the one bringing him flowers every week?"

"If I am?" she asked grudgingly.

Sakura only smiled wryly. "I used to ask myself for two years – why and how he opened up for you."

Karin jerked her head towards her, red eyes flashed anger.

"And now I understood," Sakura spoke in haste, not wanting the redhead to be hostile towards her. "Despite being with him for a short time you were able to understand him well and shared his pain."

Kakashi held Sakura's shoulder. "What she meant to say was – "

"We had him at his worst, you had him at his best," Suigetsu continued with a bunch of white flowers in his hand. His eyes bored on Sasuke's former team with a guarded look while Juugo immediately went towards Karin, ready to protect her if need be.

Naruto nodded upon getting the point. "Yes but in the end, what matters was we all stood by him."

"Stood by him?" Karin asked savagely, her finger pointing towards Sakura. "She intended to kill him. Is that what it meant to stand by him?"

Sakura looked away and refused to meet the redhead's angry glare. "If you stood by him, then you should have probably sought other ways to reach to him – to understand more of his pain."

"Karin, you've said your prayers," Juugo spoke. "It's time we go."

She stood defiantly. "Was death the only way to save him?" she asked Sakura in challenge. "And here you are wondering how he opened up to me – to us instead of you?"

Naruto wanted to speak in Sakura's defense because he understood what her reasons were but sadly, he could not find the right words to say.

This time, Karin chortled bitterly before turning to the stones once again. "How can anyone ever understand how much there was that have been left unsaid? How much of plans unfinished, questions unasked? Love unspoken?"

She reached for the flowers from Suigetsu and turned from them as she fell on her knees and laid it down to the two stones. Then she stood up and walked away without any words leaving the former team watching him go as the other two followed.

And when she was a good distance away, she spoke to Juugo and Suigetsu. "He too was a man of sacrifice – a man who gave up the good things for vengeance yet a lost soul in the end."

She understood that when he talked about Itachi giving up so much.

"Proof of that were his regrets when he was dying."

She did not tell him that what she understood most was his greatest regret. That he regret fighting him because he wished he had just tried to understand and to talk to him – because he wished he was able to forgive the past – to bury the hatchet.

She shook her head lightly.

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So that was what he told her.

How he lost his family in that bloody massacre and lost himself as well.

How he found his brother a few years after only to lose him and found him again once more only to bury him.

So he told her how in his hunt for the brother he killed, he instead found the brother he loved and lost, and how in his descent to darkness, he was guided by the dead brother watching over the remaining one and so he journeyed back to what was his home and how in the end, what mattered for him was that he was reunited to the one he lost.

And how finally, in his last hour, he spoke of sacrifices the one who went away had given up and how he regretted getting lost from the right track.

And so that was what he told her.

And this is what she understood.

That no matter how big their crime was, they were merely pawns used by people in control.

That behind everything that defined them – traitor, prodigy, murderer, criminals – one simple fact remained and was forever unchanged.

That in the end, they were no more than men of sacrifice.

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**Note: I'm aware that it was not Sasuke who killed his brother in the manga so I would like to explain that the "killing" part in my story had nothing to do with him killing Itachi physically but rather, I meant that to be something figurative. **

"**How can anyone ever understand how much there was that had been left unsaid? How much of plans unfinished? Questions unasked? Love unspoken?" == This is not my original line, rather I borrowed it from "So Many Partings" which is a very good novel. I have no claim over it. **

**Lastly, this story is inspired by "Sacrifice of Isaac".**


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